Search the Media Repository
Discover the curated images, videos, and primary sources featured throughout Foundations and Futures
History is more than just text on a page; it is the photographs, voices, and artifacts of the people who lived it. The images and recordings featured across Foundations and Futures are part of a meticulously curated media repository. Whether you are building a lesson plan or investigating an artifact, you can use this database to trace the provenance of our media: discover who created an asset, the historical context behind it, and how it can be used to bring Asian American and Pacific Islander experiences into your classroom.
Multimedia
Chapters
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Martha Lum with Class
In 1927, the Supreme Court ruled in Gong Lum v. Rice that Chinese Americans were not allowed schooling in white schools. Martha Lum is shown in her second grade class at a school in Bolivar County, Mississippi, before the ruling took place.
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Letter From State Superintendent of Public Instruction
In 1885, the State Superintendent of Public Instruction in California published a letter in the Daily Record-Union with the opinion that the Tape case will “throw open our public schools to the Chinese.”
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Illustration of Tape Family
Joseph and Mary Tape married in 1875 and lived in San Francisco, California, where they attempted to enroll their daughter Maimie in the all-white school. The Tapes sued the Spring Valley Primary Schools for refusing enrollment to their daughter, and the California Supreme Court ruled in their favor.
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Salvador Roldan and Marjorie Rogers
Salvador Roldan (right), a Filipino immigrant, and Marjorie Rogers (left), a white Englishwoman, had their marriage license revoked in 1933 due to California’s anti-miscegenation laws.
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Portrait of Takao Ozawa
Portrait of Takao Ozawa, a Japanese immigrant who argued that his education, employment, and way of life proved his assimilation and right to naturalized citizenship. In 1922, the Supreme Court denied him citizenship because he was not white.
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Alien Land Bill Is Signed By Gov. Johnson
Several states including California passed alien land laws prohibiting non-citizens from owning farmland. This headline from a San Diego newspaper announces the passage of a 1913 law in California that specifically targets Asian migrants. The law was renewed in 1920 and not invalidated until 1952 by the California Supreme Court.
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The Massacre of the Chinese at Rock Springs, Wyoming
Anti-Chinese violence increased in the late 1800s. In 1885 in Rock Springs, Wyoming, armed white miners attacked and expelled Chinese immigrant miners working for the Union Pacific Coal Company, blaming the Chinese for taking their jobs.
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Filipino Farmworkers in Asparagus Field
Filipino farmworkers, shown here working asparagus fields in Sacramento County, played a significant role in California agriculture while routinely facing discrimination and violence.
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Filipino Murdered, Victim of Rioters
During the 1930 Watsonville Riots, Fermin Tobera, a twenty-two year old farmworker, was shot and killed by white mobs in a five-day wave of anti-Filipino violence. His murderer was never apprehended.
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Illustration of Wong Chin Foo
Wong Chin Foo (Chin Foo Wong) was a prominent Chinese American journalist and activist. He challenged the 1892 Geary Act, which required Chinese residents to carry proof of residence.
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John Chu Certificate of Residence
The stipulations of the 1892 Geary Act required Chinese Americans to carry proof of residence. This certificate was granted in March 1894 in New York City to John Chu.
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In Cruel Suspense Cartoon
The 1892 Geary Act extended the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act for another ten years and required Chinese Americans to carry proof of residency in the US. This political cartoon uses racist caricature and stereotyped speech to depict a Chinese migrant as being booted out of the US.
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Workingmen’s Party of California Ticket
An 1879 regular ticket for the Workingmen’s Party of California, which ran on the slogan, “The Chinese must go!”
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A Catalogue of Chinese Curiosities
A catalog of “Chinese Curiosities” that were brought to New York by the Carnes Brothers in the early nineteenth century including Afong Moy, the “Chinese Lady” who was exhibited as a museum object for the general public.
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Three Graces
The cover of The Wasp magazine from May 26, 1882, associates San Francisco’s Chinatown with “malaria,” “small-pox,” and “leprosy.” The portrayal of Chinese migrants as diseased began with coolies, and was one of several justifications provided by lawmakers to exclude Chinese and other Asian migrants from entry to the US.
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On the Lower Deck
An illustration by Edward Holden titled “On the Lower Deck,” and published in Harper’s New Monthly magazine in June of 1864, shows “heathen coolies” preparing to mutiny. Coolies were alternatively depicted as weak and slavish or dangerous heathens ready to disrupt the moral order.
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Protest On Muslim Registry
Activists in Washington, DC, protest the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System (NSEERS), which racially profiled South Asian, Muslim, and Arab American communities.
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Posted Exclusion Orders
Posters displayed in San Francisco, California, in 1942 ordered the mandatory “evacuation” of Japanese Americans from the Western United States during WWII. Citation: Unknown, “Posted Exclusion Orders,” photograph, April 11, 1942, Densho.org.
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Leading Races of Man Map
German naturalist and physician Johann Friedrich Blumenbach claimed there were five human races and attempted to indicate the boundaries of each racialized group as shown in this map from 1889.
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Wong Kim Departure Statement
In 1894, Wong Kim Ark traveled to China to see his family. Despite these notarized re-entry papers, Wong was detained and denied reentry.
